The San Gabriel Valley’s Temple City opened its excellent new Rosemead Boulevard Project on May 10, 2014. I didn’t make it out to the grand opening festivities, but I recently got a chance to bicycle there and experience the new Rosemead Blvd first hand. It’s great. All Southern California cyclists should make pilgrimages — and spend money while you’re there.

The project, shown in green on the above map, is on both sides of Rosemead Boulevard for its entire length through Temple City. It extends two miles from Calita Street to the railroad undercrossing near Lower Azusa Road. The area is mostly commercial strips, with some housing, apartments, and single family homes interspersed. Overall, it’s suburban, though somewhat older suburban. Most of the commercial buildings are set back far from the street; there are plenty of surface parking lots.

Rosemead Boulevard’s protected bike lanes are quite different than L.A. County’s first protected bike lanes on Third and Broadway in Downtown Long Beach; both are first class facilities, though. The Long Beach project includes bike signalization at nearly all signalized intersections; as far as I could tell, Temple City didn’t make any changes to traffic signals. Traffic signals can markedly increase costs for protected bikeways. Temple City doesn’t appear to have skimped on costs, though. The project includes extensive landscaping, and lots of curb-work, including landscaped center-median islands.

Temple City’s treatments vary a great deal. Section treatments–see images below–ranged from landscaped-island-protected bikeway to parking-protected bikeway to buffered bike lane to basic bike lane (with and without parking) to short stretches of sharrows.

The best parts of the Rosemead Boulevard Project, roughly half of the mileage, had this configuration: no parking, wide bike lane – roughly 6-feet, suitable for two cyclists side-by-side – and tree-lined landscaped median protecting the bike lane from adjacent traffic lane.

Last night, the city of Los Angeles Departments of Transportation (LADOT) and City Planning (DCP) hosted a webinar to introduce L.A. cyclists to what are called the “second year study corridors” for the L.A. City Bicycle Plan. The webinar included a presentation and a question and answer session. The unscripted Q&A yielded a handful of newsworthy tidbits. SBLA will report these newsbites first, then, next week, review bike plan implementation, including the “first year” and “second year” batches.

Bike Parking: LADOT’s Michelle Mowery explained that, due to issues with a contractor bidding process, LADOT isn’t installing their inverted-U bike racks right now. They expect to resume installations this summer. Mowery stated that there was a wait list of about 30 bike corrals awaiting installation. One of the next corrals to be installed will be in front of Laemmle’s movie theater on Lankershim Blvd in North Hollywood.

LADOT’s San Fernando Road bike path has been designed to accommodate future double-tracking of the adjacent Metrolink railway. Photo: Rails-to-Trails (Note: The path extends across multiple city jurisdictions and this image might be just inside the City of San Fernando.)

In the two years since LADOT installed its first bike corral in front of Cafe de Leche on York Boulevard in Northeast Los Angeles, things have been quiet on the bike corral front. Yes, there were reports of Metro funding an expansion of the program, and there is that “other corral” that’s part of the Sunset Triangle Plaza; but overall the “bike corral program” has been disappointing.

That’s beginning to change. Last month, LADOT announced plans for another 7-10 corrals to pop up in the near future around the city. Yesterday, that promise began to become true as a corral was installed in Atwater Village at 3147 Glendale Boulevard in front of Kaldi Coffee. Streetsblogger Daveed Kapoor parked his bike there, snapped the above picture and offered a quick review.

In short, the new LADOT design, which staff confirmed will be used in the rest of the corrals, is sturdier than the one in York Boulevard. It is designed to only be accessed from the sidewalk to prevent queuing bike parkers from spilling out into the bike lane or roadway, a standard design feature in many cities. Read more…

During the offseason, the Los Angeles Dodgers promised improved bicycle access and parking at Dodger Stadium as part of the stadium renovations With CICLE and the Eastside Bike Club promoting their annual Dodgertown Bike Ride this Saturday, now seems to be as good a day as any to check in.

In 2008, Streetsblog completed a series on biking to Dodger Stadium that ended with sad results. Despite our pleas, the situation didn’t improve while the parking lot capitalist owned the team. With new leadership, would we see new results?

The answer is a profound “not yet.”

Streetsblog reader Tenney Hood tested the improved bicycle parking and found it lacking:

Although the bicycle parking map provided on the Dodgers official website shows bicycle parking at all of the Stadium entrances, these parking racks do not actually exist. I have asked many security guards at multiple games; the only rack any are aware of is on the Top Deck, which on the map is the bicycle rack in Parking Lot P. This in it of itself is a problem–I have to carry my bicycle up to the Top Deck, lock it, then walk back down to my own level to the enter the field. At the end of the game, I have to return to the Top Deck, against the traffic of thousands of people. Additionally, Stadium staff will not let you access the stairs or the elevator closest to the Top Deck, making this even more difficult.

Yikes, so there’s quite a bit of room between the Dodgers and their rivals in the bay who have a functioning bike valet system. Read more…

Moments ago, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed a new bicycle parking ordinance into law which requires more bicycle parking at new developments and even allows a small swap of car parking for bike parking in certain approved development plans. The ordinance was on the verge of being signed last year before a series of small technical changes were added and the legislation had to go back through the City Council Committee structure.

“The city is undergoing a transportation renaissance and we are changing the way Los Angeles moves,” said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, before signing the bill. “We have made unprecedented investments in the city’s bike infrastructure, with more bikeways and bike parking spaces than any time in the city’s history. The bicycle parking ordinance is another step in making it easier for Angelenos to navigate the city on two wheels.”

The ordinance goes into effect on March 13, 2013.

Under the new law, up to 30% of auto parking can swapped for bicycle parking within a commercial nonresidential project and 15% of auto parking can be swapped within a residential project that is near a major bus or transit station. This could be particularly crucial for the transit oriented developments that pop up as a result of the new train lines that are coming online as a result of Measure R.

The ordinance also provides a mechanism to add more bike corrals to city streets. These on-street public bicycle parking spaces offer an opportunity to provide ample bicycle parking without taking up pedestrian space on sidewalks. Bike corrals have been proven to increase bicycle usage in areas where they are installed, as they encourage residents to travel by bicycle around their neighborhoods to do their shopping and errands. Read more…

(Update, January 17: The City Council passed the ordinance without any discussion at yesterday’s full meeting. It now awaits the Mayor’s signature to become law. – DN)

It’s been over 15 months since it seemed the city was poised to enact a progressive bike parking ordinance that would dramatically increase the amount of bicycle parking required in new developments. In that time, the ordinance was sent back to City Planning for a handful of technical corrections, before it re-appeared in front of the City Council Planning and Land Use Committee hearing earlier today.

Ed Reyes and the rest of the City Council are still waiting for their chance to pass the city's bike parking ordinance. Photo: LADOT Bike Blog

With Committee Chair Ed Reyes not in attendance, acting chair Jose Huizar put the motion on the consent calendar. THe ordinance could be voted on by the full City Council as early as later this month. The transportation committee already waived consideration of the ordinance after holding hearings last year. The Council also passed a “negative declaration” last year, meaning the city found that increasing bike parking would have no negative impact on the city’s air quality.

“This is a huge milestone in further establishing cycling as a legitimate mode of transportation in this City,” writes Bill Rosendahl, Chair of the City Council Transportation Committee.

“If you were to travel by car and knew at the end of the trip there was a high probability that your car would be vandalized or stolen you would think twice about making that trip. The same rule applies to those who travel by bicycle. And just as we have automobile parking standards for private development, we will now have bicycle parking standards for private development. It’s about equity and encouragement. You simply can’t expect people to travel by bicycle unless you provide safe, secure and available bicycle parking at the end of the trip.”

Bike Center is recognized by the League of American Cyclists as a "Bike Friendly Business," not an honor that one receives just by selling or parking bicycles. Photo: Gary Kavanagh

Bike Center is actually two locations (Parking Structure 7 at 320 Broadway and Parking Structure 8 at 215 Colorado) in the center of downtown with a combined 5,300 square-feet of space and nearly 360 secure bicycle parking spaces. As regular readers of Streetsblog know, Bike Center has become not just a fixture in Santa Monica and a national model on how a space dedicated towards cyclists can grow movement for bicycles and provide a sustainable source of funds for the investor and host city.

And they do it while making money. In its first year of operation, Bike Center has over 200 paying members, operated a year-round bicycle valet program which parked over 1,800 bicycles, and provided nearly three dozen bicycle education classes (free to members with a small fee to non-members.) In addition, Santa Monica allowed Bike Center to put some bicycle retail space on the corner where Bike Center resides. At the Orange 20 website, Richard Risenberg breaks down what this means in economic turns both for Bike & Park who run Bike Center and the City of Santa Monica who rents them the space and worked with Metro to provide a $50,000 grant to refurbish.

The Bike Center pays the City of Santa Monica a base rent of $1500 a month, plus a percentage of its income.

In one recent month of operation that percentage came to $17,000 over the base rent!

Yes, that $50,000 in seed money was a good investment for Santa Monica, who is now receiving a healthy income from the Bike Center.

Brad Aaron, back down in Key West for spring break, files this update from South Florida’s bike-friendly isle.

Spotted these guys installing a bike corral just off Duval Street, Key West’s main drag, on Monday afternoon. Parts of historic Old Town, at least, have recently been converted to muni-meter parking, but from what I could tell this facility was taking the place of a metered spot.

Earlier today, AEG announced the completion of the first draft of environmental documents for Farmers Field, the proposed football stadium for Downtown Los Angeles. The document, available on City Planning’s website, is a mammoth 10,000 pages and the ceremonial handing over of the documents to the city at today’s event involved 13 overflowing three ring binders.

Of course, the EIR was already available on City Planning’s website.

With only 45 days to examine all 10,000 pages, the clock is running. Here is our first thoughts on the transportation planning for Farmers Field.

Increasing Capacity on the 101

Be careful what you plan for. This graphic explains how building highways begets more highways in rural areas, but the conclusion is the same. Building a highway expansion creates a need to expand a highway somewhere else.

When the Daily News published its exclusive report on the transportation planning for the Downtown Stadium last night, it focused on a proposal to widen the 101 freeway from Downtown Los Angeles to Glendale Boulevard. While the idea of eliminating a bottleneck probably appeals to car commuters from the Valley to Downtown and football fans alike, Caltrans and the other agencies who will spend AEG’s $2.5 million to study the project need to be vigilant.

Lat month, the Metro Board authorized a funding agreement (Item 8) with Caltrans of $100,000 for development of Project Study Report (PSR) for the “Highway 101 Auxiliary Lane Project” that appears to be the same project proposed by AEG. It should take up to six months for Metro, Caltrans and other participating agreements to be ready for the study.

Increasing capacity on one highway in an area where it connects with so many other highways in such a short area is fraught with peril, even if one only measures a highway project’s success by traffic flow. True, traffic may flow through the couple of miles that are bottlenecked now, but opening the flow in that area could encourage more people to drive to more destinations and increase congestion elsewhere.

Of course, the new traffic patterns will impact congestion, air quality, and life in general on a daily basis, not just on game day. If the traffic study shows an increased amount of cars on the 101 and connected highways, and it probably will, officials will have to decide whether or not increasing the amount of cars on L.A.’s freeways is a cost the region is willing to pay to increase access to a special event’s center.

This Saturday, Santa Monica Spoke gave the three new Main Street Bike Corrals the opening they deserved. If the city wasn’t going to program a ribbon cutting ceremony, that doesn’t mean that a ceremony won’t be had, or a ribbon won’t be cut.

Advertisement

Between the recently launched Bike Center, the largest bike parking facility in the country, and the trio of corrals, Santa Monica is becoming the bike parking capital of Southern California. To celebrate, a couple dozen bike advocates biked from Bike Center to Peet’s Coffee, home to one of the corrals in an event organized by Santa Monica Spoke and Richard McKinnon of the City Planning Commission and. There, there were joined by Mayor Richard Bloom to cut a ribbon and make Saturday’s celebration the most official un-official opening in history.

“We at Santa Monica Spoke have strongly advocated the importance of abundant, convenient and safe parking for bicycles. Good bike parking is an essential feature of a bikeable urban landscape and a crucial component in encouraging and enabling people to ride. It’s an important and valuable investment for cities to make.” Cynthia Rose said to the crowd.

A bike corral is created when a city removes a car parking space and replaces it with a series of bike-parking spaces. In Santa Monica, the corrals on the east side of Main Street have seven bike racks with space for fourteen bicycles and the one on the west side has four racks for eight bicycles.